What does the "Kiwi.com Guarantee" cover?

I highly recommend not to book this type of connection and read some online review on Kiwi from people who have tried using this guarantee. Typical complaints include

• You need to call KIWI directly when you miss the connection, which can be quite difficult and expensive if you are in a foreign country. Wait times on the phone can be quite long
• If you incur any cost BEFORE you talked to KIWI on the phone, they won't refund it.
• The guarantee is capped at twice the actual cost of the flight that you missed. If you had booked a $30 Ryan air ticket, missed it, and needed to rebook on a $300 Lufthansa ticket, you are still out $240
• Kiwi doesn't pay if they think it is "your fault", i.e. they won't pay if both flights are on time. If you miss it because of long lines at immigration or customs, late bags, or just an overly aggressive short connection you are out of luck.
• Not related to the guarantee but still a concern: many passengers complain about exorbitant baggage charges (much higher than the airline charges) and not honoring the 24-hour cancellation rule.

Keep in mind that even if KIWI is legally required to pay something, they still may drag their feet and make this incredibly hard and cumbersome for you.

Low cost airlines sometimes fly through airports with rather limited connection options. Let's see an example.

Let's say you are in the UK and want to soak up a little sun so you are flying from Edinburgh to Thessaloniki. You get a route with two Ryanair flights via Bratislava. On paper this looks great: the flights are super cheap, you are saving hundreds of pounds and it's not like there are direct flights to be had for any money so why not? However, you miss your connection and now you are in Bratislava. The next flight to Thessaloniki is in four days. If you don't want to wait, you need fly back to some major Ryanair airport -- London, Brussels, Dublin -- and hope this time you make your connection. Or you can take ground transport to Vienna or Budapest and a flight from either... this is going to cost a lot of money, take a long time and it's really a huge hassle. Also, if Kiwi doesn't help you out, are you even going to know what to do when straddled in Bratislava?

Really, unprotected connections should only be booked by people who have a lot more experience in flying and solving these situations. I feel this is the biggest caveat with what kiwi offers -- they would need an iron tight concierge style service even more than monetary guarantees to make sure you don't get stranded.

Kiwi is a scam... my wife just missed her connection in London where they gave her 2 hours scheduled to collect her bags, get thru customs and check back in with another airline. That airline stated check in closed 1 hour prior to departure. She was not made aware of it until she got to the counter missed it by 4 minutes. Kiwi customer service line stated that she had 1:56 to make the connection from arrival and that their policy gave her 1:45 min or more to make it. Nothing they can do. No rebooking or help in any way. Called customer support as soon as counter told her it was too late to check in.

The Kiwi.com guarantee seems to work better now than when the other reviews were posted. When our first flight was delayed, we called Kiwi and got connected immediately to an agent who confined we were covered, then gave us a choice of replacement flights and couched is for a hotel as the next flight was the next day. No hassle.